Optically anisotropic articles such as retardation films and polarizers used in liquid crystal displays may be produced by the application of a solution containing a polymerizable liquid crystal material onto a rubbed substrate or a substrate having an optical alignment layer, followed by drying of the solvent and UV or thermal polymerisation. To enhance the viewing angle of liquid crystal displays, retardation films are required to have a small or reverse wavelength dispersion of birefringence (Δn). To realize this characteristic, polymerizable liquid crystal compounds of reverse dispersion type have been developed (for example, Patent Literature 1). In general, a retardation film is said to have a reverse wavelength dispersion of birefringence or a polymerizable liquid crystal compound forming the retardation film is said to be of reverse dispersion type when a graph which plots the birefringence (Δn=refractive index ne at extraordinary light−refractive index no at ordinary light) on the ordinate against the wavelength λ of the incident light on the abscissa has a positive slope (in which the magnitude of birefringence increases with increasing wavelength).